This Week In Mobile – Flying, Mining, And Dying In Space

It was hard to narrow down this list because a ton of mobile games released this week, many of which look quite good. This week’s games are some of the most polished mobile releases I’ve seen in a while.

One of this week’s hottest and most full-fledged releases is Mines of Mars, an atmospheric, procedurally generated mining game set in the depths of mars. Inspired by games like Metroid and MotherLoad, Mines of Mars involves exploration, combat against ancient creatures, and full-fledged crafting systems from the gems acquired from mining. There are even mini-games inside of the world. Mines of Mars is more pricey than the average mobile release, but offers impressive depth of content.

Featuring the best trailer of the week, Block Legend is a promising-looking puzzle/RPG game. Much like the game 10000000, Block Legend has a knight that runs automatically across the screen, and each time he faces an enemy, you try to match up similar sword blocks or magic blocks to do damage, or match shield blocks for more shields, gold blocks to gain gold, etc. This is done by tapping blocks, which will lead to new blocks cascading down, hopefully triggering a combo of new matches. The game is divided into levels, and at the start of every new level you can buy upgrades. The goal is to get through as many levels as possible on one run, and the game has a charming art style and a sense of humor to boot.

On the more traditional RPG front is Alpahdia Genesis, a full-fledged Japanese style role-playing game complete with 3D battles. Alphadia Genesis already released on Android in February, but it is coming to iOS for the first time this week. This is a no-frills old school JRPG, with a sprawling storyline about the saving the world, turn based combat, and probably a lot of grinding. If that’s your thing, Alpahdia Genesis may not be a bad investment at five dollars.

Mixing a Minecraft aesthetic, tower defense, and RTS elements, Block Fortress: War is an ambitious strategy game that has both a singer-player campaign and multiplayer. In it, you can build up a defense of mortars, walls, etc. using Minecraft-esque blocks, and then send minions across the map to take down the opposition’s fortress. Players control their own hero type much like in a MOBA style game, who gains levels as the match progresses and gains hero abilities to use. The game has five different unique races to play with, and each race has their own building and unit types. Block Fortress: looks to be a very complex and hectic game and will probably be rewarding for anyone who puts in enough time into it.

Microtrip is a fall-down game with an original premise and a cute art style. You play as a small microorganism with a smiley face inside a strange creature, trying to eat cells and get down as deep as possible. The game is procedurally generated so gameplay will be somewhat different in each run. That’s about all there is to say. It’s not particularly complex, but it’s got a great visual style and looks like a fun time-waster on a rainy day if nothing else.

Another game with a great art style, Eets Munchies is a puzzle game somewhat similar to Lemmings or A Boy and his Blob. Eets Munchies involves placing different objects in a level for a hungry-looking Rabbit creature to interact with. For example, giving him a hot pepper near a ledge will make him move faster over the ledge. The aim is to feed him the right food in the right area of the level to make the creature reach the goal, which is a cake usually placed somewhere at the top of the level. With a whimsical musical score and some clever-looking puzzle designs, Eets Munchies is definitely a charmer.

A mix of Nights for the Sega Saturn and Pilotwings, Cloud Spin is a very pretty flying game. The main mode allows you to maneuver your character up, down, and side to side, while he flies through a level collecting coins and dodging obstacles. There is also a free-fly mode, where you can fly around the world and ride air lifts like in Pilotwings. Previously only out on iPad, it is now out for the iPhone. It is a visually appealing game and makes the mere act of flying look pretty exhilarating – an aspect which most games fail to capture.

Out There puts you in the spacesuit of an astronaut who awakens from a cryogenic slumber to find out he’s in the deep reaches of space all alone. In order to stay alive, you’ll have to tinker with your ship, manage resources wisely find other planets with oxygen, and find any means to survive. Out There is reminiscent of FTL but focuses more on adventure than combat, and looks to be an atmospheric and moody game worth checking out.